Sunday is going to be something special, and if you don’t feel it yet, you will when you get up at an ungodly hour to watch the gold medal game.
Canada versus the United States, playing for Olympic gold, is the matchup everyone wanted, and the one the sport deserved. These two nations have been playing out this rivalry on the biggest stage in hockey for decades, and it still never gets old.
The last time they met in an Olympic gold medal game was Vancouver 2010, Sidney Crosby scored in overtime, and it became a moment so burned into the Canadian consciousness that people still bring it up as if it happened last week.
So yeah, Sunday has every chance to produce something just as lasting.
Canada fought through their semifinal win against Finland the hard way, going down two goals before coming back in the third period and playing a more Canadian style of hockey.
“The last game was our first real test of adversity. We kind of walked through our first three. So down two, everyone’s calm, no one’s panicking,” said Nathan MacKinnon, whose game-winning goal was nearly wiped off the board by an offside review.
The goal stood, Canada moved on, and MacKinnon has been one of several impactful players this whole tournament. He’s carrying an enormous load while fielding every question about Crosby’s absence with the same composure his team showed when they were staring down a two-goal hole.
“I’m trying to play the best I can. It’s difficult out there.” Said MacKinnon. “Obviously, like (John Cooper)said, there’s a better chance (Crosby) plays in the gold than tonight.”
Crosby’s status heading into Sunday has grabbed considerable attention because he is Canadian Olympic hockey, in a way that very few athletes ever become the embodiment of something larger than themselves. He scored the goal in Vancouver. He set the standard for what it means to wear that jersey at this level.
McDavid acknowledged it plainly; he’s just keeping the seat warm.
If Crosby is healthy enough to go, and he steps onto that ice for a gold medal game, the moment will carry a weight that’s difficult to overstate.
McDavid has been everything Canada needed him to be this tournament, but even he can’t hide from what Sunday means.
“It is exciting,” stated McDavid. “It has not sunk in yet.”
Drew Doughty, meanwhile, has been through this before and is somehow hungrier for it because of that.
“It means the world to me. It’s been a long time since the other two,” said Dougherty of his last Olympics. “I want to do this one for all of Canada, for my teammates, and for my kids.”
Two Olympic gold medals already, and Doughty is chasing this one like he’s never won anything. This is what this rivalry pulls out of people and hockey players.
Canada vs the United States doesn’t need manufactured stakes or forced excitement because the history between these two countries does that automatically.
Whether Crosby is on the ice or watching from the press box, whether McDavid takes over in overtime or MacKinnon finds one more defining moment, Sunday is going to give us something people are still talking about twenty years from now.
This is vintage Olympic hockey, and it’s playing out right in front of us.
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